In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
(disclaimer: This question was answered in one document through the added participation of each member of my group)
The first shot is a tilt downwards. The camera goes from the top of the trees to the floor. We did this to emphasize the height of the trees, as this could make the audience feel slightly intimidated. In terms of the text, we decided to have a black shadow behind it. This is to make sure the text is clearly visible in front of the white of the sky. We decided to go for a simple font that was easy to read, as we didn't want it to serve as too much distraction from the sequence. This shot is a very long shot. We decided early in pre-production that we wanted to have slow cutting at the beginning and slowly build up to fast cutting at the end. This will create a build up of tension.
The second shot is an establishing shot of the location with the killer sat in the centre of the shot. It is an extreme long shot as this shows how isolated he is. We used titles again in this scene with the same font to show consistency and in the bottom right as to not distract from the focus of the shot, which is the killer, and also because that area of the shot was not active. It is worth noting that all our scenes, apart from the flashback, have a blue tint to them. This is a convention of horror films and gives a more unnatural and eerie look to the shots.
The next shot is a tracking shot that tracks the killer from him sitting on the log, to walking towards the body. We decided that this would be the best shot to have as it is still early in the sequence and we highlighted earlier that we wanted infrequent cuts at the beginning, and also we felt it helped the scene flow. We decided to stop tracking once we established the direction he was going in as it then emphasizes the scale of the forest and really emphasizes that he is isolated, as he gets smaller in the scene.
The next shot is also a tracking shot. This follows the killer and is a medium close up. We decided it would be better to be closer to the killer now because it removes that sense earlier on that he is alone, as this shot does not show isolation. There is a vignette in all our shots excluding the flashback as we felt this added a spooky effect and implies that there is darkness everywhere. This is also conventional in horror films.
The next shot is a low angle shot that shows the bloody hand of the victim, with the killer walking towards it in the background. The focus changes from the killer in the background at first, to the hand in the foreground and this was to show a change in the focus of the sequence from the killer to the body. We decided to use a low angle shot as this shows that all control is with the killer and there is no hope for the victim. The fact that the killer is out of focus the nearer he is to the hand connotes that the events that caused this are unclear to him.
In contrast, the next shot is a high angle shot, which again shows that all control is with the killer, as this is a point of view shot. This is also the shot that reveals the body to the audience. We made this a long shot because we wanted to include the whole body in the shot to emphasize that this was key to the scene.
This next shot is an over the shoulder shot. This helps bring some perspective to the audience as to where the killer is in relation to the body. It also hides the emotion of the killer and, as a result, emphasises his isolation. Also, because of the nature of the over the shoulder shot and perspective, the killer is larger in the shot, and this could symbolise the power he has in the scene.
There is then a zoom shot of the blood-stained hand, which builds up nicely to the flashback, as the zoom acts like a distancing from reality. We decided to put the camera at an angle as so that the body is visible out of focus. This helps the audience anticipate that the killer is thinking about him. This shot is short in length as we wanted to use fast paced editing to represent a hint of panic. Also, the fact that the body is behind the hand out of focus makes it clear to the audience that he is guilty of the crime.
For the flashback shots, we decided to completely change the tint we used. This was because we wanted to make it clear that this was a flashback sequence and not part of the scene. We decided to go for a yellow tint as this gives the scene a warm feeling and shows that the killer actually enjoys killing. We decided to only leave part of the shot in focus and the rest we added a directional blur, as we thought this would best represent that it was a memory, as naturally memories will be distorted.
We wanted the whole of the flashback sequence to be built up of close up shots, as it puts the audience right in the thick of the action and could increase their empathy towards the victim. In terms of sound, we decided to include an eerie soundtrack along with voiceovers that overlap each other, as we wanted the sound to be very busy to add fear to the audience. The sound builds up until the scream of the victim, which is loud as a convention of horror is to scare people, and unexpected loud noises scare people.
The next shot is an extreme close up of the killers eyes and solidifies that it was indeed a flashback and was formed from the memories of the killer. The close up also emphasizes his emotions and his eyes tell a lot in this scene.
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